


Kai Lavellan and the Modern AUs

by TheRedAlex



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-23
Updated: 2015-09-18
Packaged: 2018-03-25 10:13:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3806611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheRedAlex/pseuds/TheRedAlex
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kai Lavellan is an awkward college-student who stays up late to finish an essay when the fire alarm rings at 3 AM, while waiting for the fire department he meets his neighbour and crush Dorian Pavus... who's standing there in his bare underwear.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Ghost caps, underwear and all-nighters

**Author's Note:**

> “Someone needs to write a ‘the fire alarm went off at 3 am and now the cute guy from the flat next door is standing next to me in his underwear’ AU”

“Argh!” Kai groaned and kicked the black IKEA-desk so hard it moved a few inches from the wall. He hates doing essays. If only his stupid Starbucks-job was enough for him to live on, then he didn’t have to go back to school and do stupid essays on stupid things. Hold on, what was he writing about again?

 

Kai blinked several times to try to comprehend what was on the screen of his cheap green laptop. What was he writing about? And for what damn subject was he writing? Kai scrolled to the top just as the fire alarm rang. When Kai had gotten over the initial chock. Kai glanced around quickly. His eyes were wandering like an impatient child’s would in a toy store; however Kai couldn’t find anything on fire in his apartment. The one-room flat didn’t have much to burn in the beginning. Still it was a relief that it was not Kai who had started some big fire.

 

Kai quickly shut his computer and gathered the essentials, his phone, his charger and his book bag. He pulls on a jacket on top of his grey hoodie and walks out. People were running all over the place, for once Kai was happy his tiny apartment was on the first floor.

 

“Is there a real fire this time?” Kai asked his closest neighbour. What was his name again? Kai always seemed to forget it... Kai usually remembered names. Carl? Colby? No, wait, Cole! That was it!

“No, no, I don’t think so.” Cole replied and Kai had to angle his head to see something of the kid... well, young man. He always wore these weird caps so you could barely see his face. Today it was a black one with some odd ghost-print, the only thing Kai knew about Cole was that he was silent, clever and could probably hide better than the ghost on the cap.

“Okay, so it’s some kind of drill?” Kai continued still unsatisfied with the answer.

“Maybe, I just woke up... it’s 3 AM in the morning, you know.” Cole said and Kais eyes widened. 3 AM!? He had to be done with the essay in five hours! “Did something happen?” Cole said and Kai shook his head.

“No, I’ve just been slacking in school.” Kai said as they walked outside and Cole nodded in some sort of agreement as if he already knew. Wait, was it that obvious!?

“I can help you if you want.” Cole said and smiled and Kai scratched the back of his head.

“Yeah, maybe.” Kai replied unsure about what to say. He didn’t need help.

 

“Always with the ringing, it’s deafening, don’t you agree?” Someone suddenly said right next to Kai who managed to stop himself from jumping high up in the air. He turned to see the incredibly handsome young man named Dorian, Dorian Pavus to be exact. Kai gulped and looked down to see Dorian stand there in black boxer briefs and some kind of slippers. How the man could look so good in slippers was beyond Kais understanding.

“Now, I know I am dashing but I did expect you to at least nod.” Dorian continued and laughed, Kai could not understand how the man was not blue from the morning-cold.

 

“Ugh...” The disgusted noise must come from none other than Cassandra Pentaghast, she was some sort of police-officer or something. Kai would rather bet on secret agent though. Fit her black clothes a bit better. However the sudden noise made him realize that he had been gaping this whole time so he quickly shut his mouth.

“Uh... well... you’re right.” Kai said and tried to cover up his awkward behaviour with some type of response. “So... did you miss the wardrobe?” Kai asked jokingly to lighten the mood and nodded towards Dorians chest. Dorian laughed but Kai was certain it was just to be polite.

“Well, some people place their own security in front of technical gadgets.” Dorian replied with a nod to the laptop Kai was holding and Kai rolled his eyes.

 

Dorian had a point though. Kai had kind of gathered all the valuables even though the fire could have been right at his doorstep. Kai glanced down to the computer that was still steady in his left hand. He quickly used his free hand to check his jeans-pockets for his phone and charger. They were there, of course. He put them there.

 

Everyone was talking around them and Kai realized to his horror that Cole had disappeared somewhere and Kai just stood there trying to figure out what to say. Dorian didn’t seem to care, but this man always seemed confident. Even when Kai had seen him in the library after class Dorian always seemed to know exactly what he was looking for and just had this wonderful stance. Damn it.

 

“Now, do not worry, I have called the fire department and they should arrive shortly!” The landlord, Josephine Montilyet, shouted as she was trying to calm everyone down. Kai liked her, she was fair with rent and had fair regulations... but she was still able to simply throw someone out on the street if they didn’t uphold their end of the contract.

“Geez, just an alarmy-larm and then we need some red truck to shut it off!” Someone replied to Josephine just loud enough for Kai to hear. Perhaps that was the girl next door? Kai was pretty sure she was some sort of party girl since he rarely saw her come and go.

 

Kai rolled his eyes again and sighed, he just wanted to go back inside and finish his stupid essay and he would rather not stand around next to Dorian – fucking – Pavus when said man was just in his briefs. Kai would never admit it out loud but of course this freaking man caught his interest, not just that but Kai had spent a considerable amount of time trying to figure him out.

 

***

 

It took another ten minutes for the fire trucks to finally roll up, during those ten minutes there had been no smoke. No visible flames and nothing to even signal that there was any kind of fire. So they all stood there in a bunch for around ten minutes in the morning-cold and Kai did not say another word to Dorian, at all. Kai was trying to think about something though, anything would do.

 

Kai glanced at Dorian and saw him shiver where he stood and Kai wasn’t sure what to do. He looked down on his own figure. He did have the jacket on over his hoodie, his hoodie was probably warm enough. Kai felt his heart drop down as if he was some kind of nervous child when he decided to pop the question.

“Are you cold?” Kai asked Dorian who had been watching for any of the firemen to come back out, probably. Dorian turned his gaze to Kai whom just realized that Dorian was a lot taller than him and Dorian’s hair looked a lot softer than Kai’s black and scruffy hairdo. Dorian got this slight but almost apologetic smile on his face. “You can take my jacket if you want.” Kai continued and quickly wrangled out of it.

Kai stretched it out to Dorian before any protests could reach him. Dorian took the jacket though, which relieved Kai somewhat.  
"Say, when would you like it back?" Dorian asked and Kai forced himself to look into Dorians eyes, not just glance over his face.

"Uh... whenever you got the time..." Kai noticed his voice going really high-pitched and Dorian laughed again. Kai quickly looked down on the ground and scratched the back of his head.

Fuck. He had messed up now, why the hell did he have to be so nervous and awkward all the time?

"I can come by with it later today and help you with the history assignment while we're at it." Kais head shot up in surprise... what history assignment? What had he missed now? Hell, wait...

"I don't have history..." Kai replied and was honestly confused.

"Well, obviously, otherwise you'd know that staring down into the ground was never a good way to keep a dialogue." Dorian said and Kai chuckled nervously in reply. "I'll come by with it later." Dorian continued and Kai nodded lightly.

"Sure." Kai said as the firemen came back out.

No fire.

No destruction.

Not even some smoke.

But at least Kai was going to talk to Dorian again, that's exciting enough.


	2. Caffè latte, smell-checks and mirror images

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I purposely get your coffee order wrong just so you’ll talk to me again AU”

Kai yawned and rubbed her eyes, he wanted to go back to bed. He didn’t want to be at work, serving coffee to people. It was just annoying... well, he just wasn’t very happy to be in the coffee shop-business right now.

 

“Here you go, Bull.” Kai placed the cup of hot chocolate in front of the broad man. Kai liked Bull... or The Iron Bull as Bull preferred. He was one of Kais favourite regulars, he’d rather serve Bull every single day than make another vanilla iced coffee for some stuck up teen. Bull always stopped to talk to Kai if he had the time.  
“Thanks, Boss.” Bull smiled as he sat down by one of the tables closest to the counter.  
“I’m not a ‘boss’ of anything.” Kai said as went back to his book. Between customers he tried to study as much as he could.  
“You’re the boss right now.” Bull said. Kai scoffed and looked up at Bull.  
“Vivienne will probably pop in any second now.” Vivienne De Fer is Kais’ boss, but they weren’t really on good terms. Vivienne had quite conservative views on things like politics and schooling. Kai was more liberal with his views... mostly because he barely knew anything about politics or how the school system actually worked.

 

There was silence for a while and Kai tried going back to his book. He failed miserably.

 

“Hey, Bull?” Kai asked and broke the silence.  
“Yep, Boss?” Bull said and took a sip of his chocolate.  
“Do you remember that... um... guy I mentioned?” Kai asked and Bull laughed.  
“You mean Dorian Pavus, the guy you rambled about for at least thirty minutes yesterday?” Kai quickly turned the gaze to the book with red cheeks as Bull spoke. “Yeah, I remember.” Bull continued with a chuckle.  
“I actually talked to him this morning.” Kai said or rather begun. “I think I fucked up though.” He continued.  
“What did you do?” Bull asked and Kai recited the morning’s events. Kai even went down to that he had met Cole and he barely ever talked to Cole and Bull had no clue exactly who Cole was but Kai didn’t mind. He just rambled on like there was no tomorrow.

 

“And then he saaaaa...” Kai trailed off when he spotted someone incredibly recognizable and he dove behind the counter. Bull was, confused, of course.  
“What are you doing?” Bull whispered loudly. Kai shushed him when the door made a swishing sound as it was opened. Actually, what was Kai doing? He needed an excuse, quickly! He started to open cabinets in frantic panic.  
“Hello there, Bull.” It was Dorian. Wait... Dorian knew Bull? Bull knew Dorian? Since when did Bull know Dorian? Why didn’t Kai know about this?  
“Long time, no see. Shame I have to go, though, see you around, Kai.” Bull said and Kai tensed up. Why would he do that? Kai wanted to scream at him something along the lines: “I trusted you!” in a loud, angry voice. However the door closing told him that it was too late. It also meant that Dorian was in the shop and Kai was still crawling behind the counter. Kai grabbed the closest thing and rose up.

“Hi... again.” Kai said with an awkward smile and tried to cover it all up with some sort of humour.  
“When Cole told me you worked in a coffee shop, I scarcely believed it. You didn’t seem like the people-type this morning.” Dorian said and Kai was happy he had something in his hand that he could fidget with. He was holding a bottle with glass cleaner.  
“I have to pay for college somehow.” Kai mumbled in reply and didn’t dare to make eye contact with him so he picked up a small towel from the bench and sprayed the strong cleaning fluid on the closest surface, this being the counter itself.  
“That’s true… here’s your jacket.” Kai looked up and put the bottle down. The jacket looked… cleaned. Had Dorian washed it? Kai refrained from picking it up and doing a smell-check. Kai does that himself after every single wash.  
“Thanks.” Kai replied.

Awkward silence.  
Damn it.  
What was he going to do?

 

“Kai, quit fooling around, you don’t need to wipe that clean right now.” Kai turned his head to see the fashionable Vivienne walk into the shop. He would never have expected his saviour being dressed in tight jeans and black cardigan. Instead of replying Kai just disappeared behind the counter to put it all away. “I will be in the back; I do hope you plan on _serving_ your customer, my dear.”  
Vivienne disappeared with that and Kai was back to being awkward and weird... or maybe not.

 

“Yeah, actually, _do_ you want anything?” Kai said and gestured towards the menu. Dorian turned his gaze to the menu, supposedly reading it through from top to bottom judging how his eyes rushed back and forth over the blackboard. Kai went over to the coffee brewer while trying to guess what Dorian wanted.

He didn’t seem like the hot chocolate-type, maybe he wanted something classic like just normal black coffee... but who would come to Starbucks to get normal black coffee? Perhaps he’d like espresso? Well, espresso was pretty expensive considering the amount of coffee you got.  
“I’d like a tall café latte.” Dorian said and Kai was awakened from his thoughts. He was... so polite. Dorian had already pulled out his wallet to pay for the coffee and Kai quickly prepared for the payment.  
Whilst Dorian was punching his code in Kai was struck with a horrible realization. What if... what if he just gave Dorian his coffee and then that was that? What if that would be the only thing and they would never ever talk again!? The machine beeped and Kai did the last few steps before making the coffee.

Dorian didn’t seem to be in a hurry since he sat down by one of the tables, there was no rush. Why was he here anyway? Didn’t Dorian have any classes?

In a split-second Kai decided to mess up Dorian’s order. That would cause him to speak to Kai again, right? It seemed like a good idea. Kai grabbed one of the flavours and blended them into the coffee before finishing the latté. Perhaps he should have checked what flavour he had picked. He sloppily wrote Dorian’s name on the cup before walking over with it.

“There you go.” Kai said smiling and the young man took with a bright smile that made Kais heart jump. Kai decided not to bother with it and went back behind the counter.

 

Fifteen minutes went by. Dorian barely drank his coffee during that time whilst reading some book for school and Kai could not act natural. He was stiff, kept stammering when other customers came in to order things and he had started cleaning again. Just one single spot on the counter though. If Kai wasn’t preoccupied he would’ve seen his perfectly mirrored image in that one single spot.  
Kai kept staring at Dorian whenever he got the chance, continuously shooting glances in his direction and pretending he didn’t at the same time.

 

Another fifteen minutes came and went and Dorian rose from the chair with a screech of the chair and Kai wanted to shrink... to nothing. Dorian had carefully shut his book before walking towards the door or so Kai thought when Dorian went over to the counter.

“Should I pay extra for the peppermint?” He said and Kai wrung his hands and tried to hear if he was angry or not. Kai was actively avoiding eye contact again.  
“No, that must’ve been a miss from my side.” Kai replied and met Dorian’s amber eyes. Kai inhaled sharply when stomach twisted. “Can... Could I get your phone number?” Kai asked and Dorian’s eyes widened a little, not in surprise though. Dorian just looked either relieved or happy. Kai didn’t even know if Dorian liked him and here he was... asking stupid questions. Damn it.  
“What a surprise! A man with some initiative and here I was thinking that they were just a myth.” Kai gulped and forced a smile when Dorian made this comment. Kai tried not to make it look too apologetic but failed miserably. However Dorian gave him his phone number, Kai was just about to give Dorian his number while the name “Halward Pavus” lit up the display.  
“I’ll call you.” Kai said and Dorian nodded at him with a smile before exiting the shop while putting the phone to his ear.  
Kai smiled goofily when Dorian left and just a couple minutes later Bull came back in. He had probably been watching or something.

 

“How did it go, boss?” Bull asked and chuckled.  
“Fantastic.” Kai replied with the smile stuck to his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another AU, I hope you'll enjoy... I didn't plan on actually continuing this story and I'm more than happy to take suggestions! Sorry about the long wait though. :/


End file.
